First published in the year 1724, the present book titled ‘A General History of the Pyrates’ is a historical work by English fictional writer and journalist Daniel Defoe.

“This book was composed when the writer was a Professor of Latin, as part of a larger scheme. He has long been convinced that the mode of teaching Latin has become less and less effective in proportion as it has been made more and more scientific. The effort has been general to confine the pupil to the most elaborate styles and the most approved classics, and the exercise of memory has been superseded by minute accuracy in the study of very limited pieces. In the natural mode we have enormous endless repetition and much learning of the names of things.” -Preface

First published in the year 1724, noted English journalist and writer Daniel Defoe’s present book ‘The History of the Remarkable Life of John Sheppard’ is fictional. Daniel Defoe is known as a writer who used novel for the first time as a literary genre and made it famous in England.

First published in the year 1903, the present book ‘ iconic American humorist and writer Mark Twain’s collection of thirty comic short stories.

First published in the year 1726, ‘The History of the Devil, As Well Ancient as Modern: In Two Parts’ is a study of the devil’s role in society and combines Biblical history with common sense as Defoe considers the conflict between forces of destructive evil and the benevolent Deity which controls the world.

The present compandium of letters and abridged memoirs written by the noted Russian short story writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov to his family and friends was first published in this form in the year 1920.

Woodwork Joints: How they are Set Out, How Made and Where Used’ is a book that introduces the readers about how they can carry out minute woodworks on their own without any paid help.

First published in the year 1921, “This volume consists of notes, themes, and sketches for works which Anton Chekhov intended to write, and are characteristic of the methods of his artistic production. Among his papers was found a series of sheets in a special cover with the inscription: “Themes, thoughts, notes, and fragments.” Madame L.O. Knipper-Chekhov, Chekhov’s wife, also possesses his note-book, in which he entered separate themes for his future work, quotations which he liked, etc. If he used any material, he used to strike it out in the note-book. The significance which Chekhov attributed to this material may be judged from the fact that he recopied most of it into a special copy book.” -Preface

First published in the year 1897, famous Russian novelist, playwright and social critique Anton Pavlovich Chekhov’s play ‘Uncle Vanya: Scenes from Country Life in Four Acts’ “portrays the visit of an elderly professor and his glamorous, much younger second wife, Yelena, to the rural estate that supports their urban lifestyle. Two friends—Vanya, brother of the professor’s late first wife, who has long managed the estate, and Astrov, the local doctor—both fall under Yelena’s spell, while bemoaning the ennui of their provincial existence. Sonya, the professor’s daughter by his first wife, who has worked with Vanya to keep the estate going, suffers from her unrequited feelings for Dr. Astrov. Matters are brought to a crisis when the professor announces his intention to sell the estate, Vanya and Sonya’s home, with a view to investing the proceeds to achieve a higher income for himself and his wife.” -Wikipedia (Uncle Vanya)

John Masefield’s present book ‘Gallipoli’ was first published in the year 1916. This book is a detailed description of the American Australian war. “A little while ago, during a short visit to America, I was often questioned about the Dardanelles Campaign. People asked me why that attempt had been made, why it had been made in that particular manner, why other courses had not been taken, why this had been done and that either neglected or forgotten, and whether a little more persistence, here or there, would not have given us the victory.” -an excerpt

First published in the year 1891, José Rizal’s novel ‘The Reign of Greed’ is a dark sequel to the author’s romantic novel ‘Touch Me Not’. The present bookl’s dark theme departs dramatically from the previous novel’s hopeful and romantic atmosphere, signifying the character Ibarra’s resort to solving his country’s issues through violent means, after his previous attempt at reforming the country’s system have made no effect and seemed impossible with the attitudes of the Spaniards towards the Filipinos.

Famous Italian romantic writer Grazia Deledda’s book ‘Nostalgia’ was first published in the year 1905. This book is an autobiographical story of early days of her being with her husband, and is a narrative of their romance together.

First published in the year 1922, Effa E. Preston’s play ‘The Dolls on Dress Parade’ is a children’s play focusing on a child’s visit to a shop to purchase doll.

“In analysing the Faker one must dissociate him from the common forger; his semi-artistic vocation places him quite apart from the ordinary counterfeiter; he must be studied amid his proper surroundings, and with the correct local colouring, so to speak, and his critic may perchance find some slight modicum of excuse for him. Beside him stand the Imitator, from whom the faker often originates, the tempter who turns the clever imitator into a faker, and the middleman who lures on the unwary collector with plausible tales.
“It is not the object of this volume to study the Faker by himself, but to trace his career through the ages in his appropriate surroundings, and compare the methods adopted by him at various periods of history, so far as they may be obtained.” -Preface

“If this Discourse appear too long to be read at once, it may be divided into six Parts: and, in the first, will be found various considerations touching the Sciences; in the second, the principal rules of the Method which the Author has discovered, in the third, certain of the rules of Morals which he has deduced from this Method; in the fourth, the reasonings by which he establishes the existence of God and of the Human Soul, which are the foundations of his Metaphysic; in the fifth, the order of the Physical questions which he has investigated, and, in particular, the explication of the motion of the heart and of some other difficulties pertaining to Medicine, as also the difference between the soul of man and that of the brutes; and, in the last, what the Author believes to be required in order to greater advancement in the investigation of Nature than has yet been made, with the reasons that have induced him to write.” -Preface

“It is a magazine whose stories will anticipate the super-scientific achievements of To-morrow—whose stories will not only be strictly accurate in their science but will be vividly, dramatically and thrillingly told. Already we have secured stories by some of the finest writers of fantasy in the world—men such as Ray Cummings, Murray Leinster, Captain S. P. Meek, Harl Vincent, R. F. Starzl and Victor Rousseau.” -Introduction